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For the University of Maine women’s hockey team this week is just like any other, except that this week they are fighting for their playoff lives and they just happen to be facing conference rivals, University of New Hampshire, at Alfond Arena on Saturday and Sunday.
In their last series against the Wildcats, the Black Bears lost 1-0 but were able to earn a conference point in their next game, with the teams skating to a 3-3 tie. In the game, UMaine took an early 2-0 lead, but the Wildcats were able to outscore Maine 3-1 for the remainder of the game, with one of the goals coming late in the third period.
“We’re trying to go back to basics and work on things we need to work on because we know that we have a big challenge in front of us,” said UMaine head coach Guy Perron. “We are at home this weekend and we are down the stretch now with eight games to go and we have to get some wins.”
During Tuesday’s practice the team worked on its play within the offensive and defensive zone. A few of the drills they did consisted of clearing the puck and being more physical in front of the net. Perron made the point that the team should pace themselves. The team will have today off and return to practice Friday to work on its special teams, in hopes of getting some scoring opportunities against Hockey East’s best penalty-killing unit.
Outside of focusing on this weekend, one thing Perron did at practice was remind the team of some of the mistakes last weekend against Providence. He pointed how miscues can lead to goals and what the team needed to do to cut down on those mistakes.
“We need to pick it up mentally because we do not want to go in the last game of the season determining whether or not we get into the playoffs,” said assistant captain and defenseman Laura Maddin. “It was a pretty hard weekend, it was frustrating to make mistakes and lose by one goal, but it was worse when we did it again the next day only to have things go even worse.”
As for the Wildcats, they will travel into Orono with a record of 17-5-4 placing them at second place in the conference. Over the weekend, New Hampshire only played one game, defeating Northeastern 2-1.
The series against the Wildcats marks the first time the Black Bears have played a game at home in over a month, when they played Sacred Heart on Jan 8.
Once the Black Bears conclude their series with UNH, four of their remaining six games will be at home. Their lone road series during the stretch will be against Boston College, the team that is currently tied with the Black Bears for the final playoff spot in Hockey East.
Bangor Daily News